…Out of character is putting it mildly. LOL. The weekly cross-brand mixed-gender tournament featured #teamlittlebig. Coincidentally, Alexa is actually the smallest woman on the roster at 5’1″ while Strowman is the biggest at 6’8″. This is what makes their pairing so hilarious despite the Nia Jaxx wanting to be paired with The Monster Among Men.

After winning their match (and handing Becky Lynch a loss on her birthday, she was paired with Sami Zayn), Strowman hit on Little Miss Bliss during their post-match interview with Renee Young. Bliss didn’t realize he broke character until she saw his face begin to change color. That was the moment she remembered the rumors regarding his Tinder Account:

…This isn’t a joke or a photoshop. Yes, he is on Tinder and has been for at least two years now actually. Adam Scherr is his real name and if his last name sounds familiar, his father is a Softball Hall of Famer:

The resemblance is strong obviously. In his prime, Rick Scherr was also 6’8″.

Here’s a picture of Adam Scherr with his sister, apparently taken backstage during a show:

So, we know that height and power is mostly genetic. She’s almost eye-level to her brother!

Getting back to the Mixed Match Challenge: The REAL interesting thing is by the end of the interview, Bliss clearly broke character herself a bit. The door was blown wide open to tease some potenial chemistry between them.

Strowman was clearly being dead serious when he prettymuch asked her out and Bliss realized in that moment he broke character. So, she was clearly trying to Friend Zone him but left the door open for something more. It certainly helps they’re both on RAW!

Of course, both Strowman and Bliss will be involved in huge storylines on the road to Wrestlemania. Both could even main event Wrestlemania, too. It remains to be seen if they will be paired again but clearly they work well together. It was pretty hilarious when Strowman tried to get Bliss to deadlift a car. LOL.

…Let’s just continue where we left off in my previous post. First, the Women’s Royal Rumble.

Asuka, who remains undefeated due to plot armor won the first Women’s Royal Rumble. It goes without saying the pool of women available is much smaller than the pool of men so Hall of Famers and former Divas were called in to fill in the remaing slots:

Lita (of course)

Trish Stratus (of course)

Vicki Guerro (The one Joke entrant)

Beth Phoenix

Kelly Kelly

Jacqueline

Michelle McCool (The crowd chanted “Undertaker!” when she got into the ring since she is…you know…his wife)

Torrie Wilson

NXT Women’s Champion Ember Moon (Despite being injured)

NXT Superstar Kaire Sane (Won the 2017 Mae Young Classic)

The Women’s Royal Rumble was the main event and it stole the show. The Bella Twins made their in-ring return as well and not a step was missed. One would be hard-pressed to believe Brie had just given birth 6 months earlier. Nikki was one of the final two competators before she was eliminated by Asuka, who won the match.

As expected, several superstars had to work together to eliminate Nia Jaxx. Beth Phoenix was able to deadlft her but couldn’t get her over the top rope. Tamina participated as well but unlike Survivor Series, she and her cousin were not in the match at the same time. Lana also participated but like Vickie she was quickly eliminated.

Like in the Men’s Royal Rumble earlier in the night, someone was knocked out before they could get in the ring. In this case it was Carmella, who was decked by Vickie (who’d just been eliminated) with her Money in the Bank briefcase. Also like Kofi Kingston in the Men’s Royal Rumble, we saw someone creatively avoid being eliminated. It was Naomi. She was thrown out of the ring but landed on other superstars (some eliminated). As per the rules, since her feet did not touch the ground she wasn’t eliminated. She catwalked across the barricade, jumped on a chair and wheelbarrowed herself back to the ring. Clearly she did her homework. LOL.

…As a reminder, Maryse and Maria Kanellis are both pregnant and obviously couldn’t participate in the match (Though Maryse did do a photoshoot with The Miz the night before). Paige can’t compete either due to her career-ending injury as well. Stephanie provided commentary during the match as well.

Rowdy Ronda Rousey’s surprise intro came before she could name who she will challenge at Wrestlemania: RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss or Smackdown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair, who were both ringside for the Royal Rumble. Charlotte expressed her disappointment in not being able to participate in the match since she is the current Smackdown Women’s Champion. On the flipside, Alexa legit looked relieved by the time it was done. Until Rousey came out, that is.

As Stephanie McMahon said in the opening minutes of this week’s RAW, Asuka can take her time deciding. Between Asuka and Rousey, I would be very surprised if we don’t see a women’s match main event Wrestlemania.

…That aside, one potential Wrestlemania match was teased: Sasha Banks vs. Bayley. The Legit Boss going Heel has been teased for some time and I like the slow set up. She and Bayley will put on a classic at Wrestlemania. I say this given Sasha eliminated Bayley in the Royal Rumble match, then challenged Asuka–who is a Face–the following night on RAW. It was one hell of a match and both were spent but of course, Asuka outlasted Sasha. It doesn’t change the fact Sasha is definitely being set up for a Heel turn before or around the time Wrestlemania happens.

Shinsuke Nakamura won the Men’s Royal Rumble and will face AJ Styles at Wrestlemania for the WWE Championship. Nakamura and Styles did clash in other promotions but not in WWE. Until now. They’re sure to put on a classic.

Like the Women’s Royal Rumble, some potential matches were teased. Bray Wyatt vs. Woken Matt Hardy is pretty obvious. John Cena is putting someone over. I’d have said Roman Reigns but they already clashed at last year’s Summer Slam. I’d have said Samoa Joe but it’s unlikely he’ll be healthy in time for Wrestlemania.

Kurt Angle was clearly planned to make his in-ring return at Wrestlemania but due to the Menningitis outbreak he did it at TLC instead. Angle vs. Triple H could still happen but there is also the possability we could see Kurt Angle vs. Shane McMahon. Who can forget that time Kurt Angle suplexed Shane through a window pane?

Dolph Zigger made his return at the Royal Rumble. As of right now, he is not involved with the U.S. Championship Tournament. He’s been on a loosing streak but it’s certainly possible that will change with his sudden return.

Rey Mysterio made his surprise return at the Royal Rumble. The first thing I thought was “205 Live”, which badly needs the established star power his presence would bring to the Cruiserweight Division. Mysterio’s last WWE run ended a few years ago after his contract expired. His first match in the indie promotion he debuted in–can’t remember if it was Lucha Underground, I think it was–ended in tragedy when his opponent died in the ring. It was a freak accident of course but it prettymuch killed his run in the promotion before it could begin prettymuch. WWE has been trying to get him back ever since and now that no other promotion is willing to take a chance on the aging Mysterio–as a reminder, he’s in his 40s now–so his return now is win-win.

I mentioned earlier someone in the Mens Royal Rumble got knocked out before they could get in thr ring. It happned to two people. Ty Dillinger was ambushed by Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn backstage, who had just lost their 2 on 1 Handicap Match against AJ Styles for the WWE Championship in the previous match. Zayn inserted himself in the Royal Rumble as Dillinger’s replacement (LOL). He lasted for a bit before he was eventually eliminated.

Zayn and KO were punished for that by being put in a tag match against AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura on Smackdown 2 nights later. Zayn left KO high and dry right before the finish, confirming what I first thought when they teamed up last year: Zayn was just using him as a means to an end. Now their rivalry will likely get them a match on the card for Wrestlemania if things go as they are now. As a reminder: Zayn has yet to win a title since coming to the main roster from NXT. KO became the first superstar to hold the top titles of RAW and Smackdown after the brand split (Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss have since done the equivalent). It’s no secret Zayn has been envious of KO’s success.

…The other person who got knocked out at the Royal Rumble was unsurprisingly. Heath Slater. Poor guy has had some crazy bad luck lately.

…We all knew it was happening. We just didn’t know when: Former UFC Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey made her first official appearance as a WWE Superstar after the finish of the Women’s Royal Rumble. She eyeballed Asuka (the Women’s Royal Rumble winner) and Charlotte Flair (current Smackdown Women’s Champion) in particular before shaking Stephanie McMahon’s hand and then leaving.

Her entrance was clearly intended to in part erase the painfully awkward promo she did at the close of the Mae Young Classic. The larger purpose was to show the MMA world, UFC fans, WWE Fans and of course her fans what she has decided to do next.

Here’s an interview she did with ESPN after the Royal Rumble:

…Obviously this is a good fit for her. She is Marking out HARD at her own WWE signing so…yeah.

Here’s a separate interview she did with WWE, presumably before the ESPN interview. Easy to tell given the ring’s LED display is still on here but it’s off in the other one.

WWE.com announced after the Royal Rumble went off the air that they have agreed to terms and have signed Rousey to a full-time contract. Let’s not kid ourselves, she’s been working out at the WWE Performance Center for months now. She brought some of her friends from UFC over to WWE and they are tearing the house down in NXT.

As of this morning it is official. Rousey gave the important details to know for now last night and again this morning:

The jacket she wore belonged to the late Rowdy Roddy Piper. After posing with it backstage she returned it to his son.

WWE is her life now. She is all in and it is a multi-year deal. She let it slip she signed on for 3 to 5 years so…yeah.

As she noted, UFC owner Dana White considers her “retired from MMA” so she has closed the book on that part of her life.

She will make her in-ring debut “Soon”, which based on her obvious attempts to not say too much could be as soon as this week’s RAW or Smackdown.

Speaking of: We will hopefully find out this week which brand Rousey will be attached to, let alone the buildup to who her Wrestlemania opponent will be. Stephanie McMahon and Charlotte Flair were both heavily teased in the same night. Charlotte would give her a proper match and would be a MEGA draw for the Smackdown Championship. On the other hand, Stephanie McMahon would make the buildup look real good. Plus, there are the rumors The Rock has expressed an interest in working with Triple H at Wrestlemania. So, a mixed tag match involving the four of them could happen.

It’s very unlikely it would be anyone else.

Carmella using the briefcaseat Wrestlemania ala Seth Rollins would be pretty epic and let’s be honest: The reason she hasn’t cashed in yet is likely BECAUSE it will happen then. So, if Rousey is booked to face Charlotte then we could see Carmella pull a Seth Rollins. Maybe, maybe not. Time will tell.

I will discuss the rest of the Royal Rumble in a separate post.

In closing, Rousey is another Brock Lesnar. Perhaps even bigger. She’s got connections in the MMA World and Star Power to draw in revenue. Dana White should’ve tried to keep her in UFC but didn’t reach out according to him and her.

ESPN has been taking shots at her and WWE all day over her new career choice, which comes as no surprise. Rousey is gonna dominate the Women’s Division just like Brock Lesnar does the Men’s Division. The difference is Lesnar is paid a full-time salary but works a part-time schedule as per his contract. Rousey will be paid full-time and work full-time on the other hand. And she’s hitting the ground running.

Vince McMahon announced Thursday afternoon that The XFL will return “Sometime in 2020”, giving a 2 year window to plan everything.

Let’s be honest: The details he gave were all lip service and no one believes for a second the XFL will be NFL-level tame. Unlike 2001, Vince is the sole owner (he had a partner back then). Also unlike 2001, he shouldn’t have a hard time finding a network or 3 looking to run the XFL this time.

There is alot of potential in the XFL this time around, more so given the current state of the NFL. The timing of this announcement, while expected was good. Vince directly calling out Tim Tebow is the first of many recruitment pitches to come. Sports Media agrees the XFL won’t replace the NFL anytime soon and clearly Vince isn’t lookint to do that this tme. The idea is to make an “Alternative” to the NFL.

More so given the XFL Season will run during the NFL’s offseason. I doubt both leagues will allow players to play for both leagues at the same time and you can be sure the XFL will be closely watching the NFL Draft. If the XFL can lure some NFL stars to their side like Richard Sherman and Michael Benett of the Seattle Seahawks, that could shift the balance of power significantly and open the floodgates to NFL players going over.

Let’s be real, the XFL will need more than just Undrafted NFL Prospects this time around:

Vince needs to bring in XFL Hall of Famer (yes, there is one) Rod “He Hate Me” Smart, who was the reason to watch the XFL every week.

Anyone who at least heard of the XFL in 2001 knows He Hate Me:

Mr. XFL himself introduced the one trademark that didn’t transfer over to the NFL that should have: Nicknames on Jerseys.

I’ll put it like this. If Tom Brady leads the Patriots to their 6th Super Bowl next week, the NFL should just give him permission to put this on his jersey:

…Because he already is. Me obviously being a shameless Boston Sports fan aside, my point is weather or not the XFL brings back nicknames on jerseys it was was a missed opportunity for the NFL.

Anywho, all we can do at this point is speculate. Vince is smart not to rush this time. It also certainly helps unlike 2001, WWE isn’t competing with another promotion. So, there is no sense of urgency like there was then. WWE Superstars will likely cameo like they did back in 2001. We may even see what was originally planned back then this time: WWE Matches at halftime. WWE has become proficient at cross promotion so we’ll see.

As for the teams. We know there will be at least 8 of them. The Las Vegas Outlaws had better be one of them! Speaking of: It would be pretty cool but would be unlikely if the NFL and the XFL did cross-promotion games ^_^

To the surprise of perhaps no one, WWE.com broke the news Tuesday afternoon that current Cruiserweight Champion Eric Arndt aka Enzo Amore has been fired. Hours before RAW’s 25th Anniversary began, it was announced he was suspended indefinitely due Sexual Assault alligations. The following day, WWE.com announced that he had been released. I will be referring to him by his real name for the rest of this article.

The sexual assault alligations stems from an incident involving Arndt and a woman who recently went public with her Sexual Assault. That tells me WWE had no prior knowledge of the incident and they were blindsided when she went public on Monday. TMZ interviewed his accuser on Tuesday, who I will not name here. Shortly after the interview aired, WWE released Arndt.

The incident actually happened back in October and this was coincidentally shortly after Arndt’s Heel turn. By then, word had gotten out that Arndt was on bad terms with the rest of the locker room. To say WWE was almost looking for an excuse to fire him goes without saying.

Given WWE would just take the accuser’s word for it and how quickly the fired Arndt speaks to both how bad they wanted to get rid of him and what kind of guy he is. WWE kept him around after divorcing him from his former tag team partner Big Cass because he was still Over with the WWE Universe.

No one is sorry to see him go. It’s almost ironic he was imfamously involved in a skit in which he has an affair with Lana two years ago and then for this to happen.

WWE legit pissed off the entire Cruiserweight Division when they handed him the Cruiserweight Championship in his first Cruiserweight Match. Remember: Neville almost walked out on the company. Even worse, they gave no reasons for why he was prettymuch holding the title indefinitely.

As for the Cruiserweight Championship, obviously it’s now vacated. I see one of three things being done since Cedric Alexander was the #1 Contender for the title at the Royal Rumble this Sunday. One is WWE simply finds someone else to face him and the winner gets the title. The Second is a a Battle Royale. The third is WWE takes the match off the card and waits until 205 Live to address it. Any of these things could happen.

I recently started watching the early episodes of Monday Night RAW on WWE Network, mostly for the Nostalgia. I was reminded the first iteration of Monday Night RAW was an hour long. The second hour was added during The Attitude Era (1996 to 2000). The third hour was permanently added after RAW’s 1,000th episode a few years back.

To say RAW’s 25th Anniversary Episode was Wrestlemania-level big goes without saying. It WAS held in two venues at the same time, after all.

WWE’s decision to not have a jumbotron or screen in The Manhattan Center pissed off those in attendance. There were two quick Dark Matches from 205 Live held during commercial breaks at The Barclays Center, which was the main venue. They were not aired due to time constraints. That plus the lack of eyes on the main venue and the above–Lawler and JR caught napping during events in the main venue–pissed off the house crowd in attendence at The Manhattan Center to the point they chanted “Bullshit!” and “Refund!”.

WWE has yet to comment on the above snapshot, among other stuff around the 2-venue issues.

The Deadman’s cryptic message left everyone scratching their heads: Was he officially announcing his retirement or announcing a comeback?

In my opinion, neither. He just cut a promo and left things ambiguous as usual.

The Miz won the Intercontinental Championship for the first time at RAW 1000. Winning his 8th on the 25th Anniversary Episode was pretty obvious once it was announced. His wife Maryse, who is currently pregnant made an appearance at the top of the ramp alongside other former WWE Superstars and Divas (some hall of famers).

She was joined by one other pregnant superstar: Smackdown’s Maria Kanellis, who is due in March. If her name last name sounds familiar, she is the wife of fellow Smackdown Superstar Mike Kanellis. The timing kinda sucked for the pair since they were clearly being built up for a sustained feud at the time. Mike hasn’t been used much since the pregnancy was announced either compared to The Miz.

Michelle McCool, who is The Undertaker’s wife (which the commentators obviously knew but left out) also appeared as did most of the women from the Attitude Era onward. Noticably absent were Mickie James, who was involved in a match earlier in the night and Lita, who couldn’t attend due to a scheduling conflict. Paige, who was ringside for the match involving the other members of Absolution was absent as well.

Well, you can’t have a party and NOT invite Stone Cold Steve Austin ^_^

What’s better than Stunning one McMahon? Stunning two!

Austin wasn’t done there, either:

…LOL there’s a reason WWE pulled the plug on his podcast!

Stone Cold does what he wants when he wants and to hell with what anyone else thinks about it. That’s how he rolls.

Of course, Austin WAS right: The McMahon vs. Austin Feud was Vince’s Final Option to turn things around in The Monday Night Wars. It worked. The idea of someone beating their boss’s ass AND getting away with it every week? OH HELL YEAH!

The Austin vs. McMahon feud is still viewed today as the greatest feud in Wrestling History because of all the little details. Once fans were hooked, everything else took off. It was the catalyst that ultimately won The Monday Night Wars with WWE.

…Vince’s Plan B was the XFL but we know how that turned out. LOL.

RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss and Smackdown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair appeared together for the first time since their match at Survivor Series:

A new Flair for a new generation ^_^

Of course, this was not the only crossover promo featuring Smackdown talent. Shane was involved with the promo invoving Austin, Vince and Stephanie after all. Smackdown WWE Champion AJ Styles also did a promo with Mean Gene as well.

Then there was the massive poker game that originally began with The APA, Heath Slater and Rhyno:

Smackdown’s Natalya, The Usos and The New Day make an appearance along with WWE Hall of Famer “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase as well as Jeff Hardy (recovering from Injury) and Titus Worldwide. The promo ran throughout the episode, ending in a match between Titus Worldwide, Slater + Rhyno. Said match was interrupted by The Dudley Boyz, who raised some hell at Slater’s expense.

Of course, the night ended the same way it began: With a BANG.

There was clearly some missteps and botches but overall, you gotta give props for the effort. I do think it would have been better if they made it month-long instead of one episode. Guess we’ll have to wait and see how things go with the 30th Anniversary Episode and the 2,000th Episode!

The internet went NUTS after Braun Strowman deadlifted a 10-ton semi-truck. Like The Ambulance Flip he did last year, I cued the video to the beginning of the lift. For those who question how this is even possible, Strowman does have something in common with the recently retired Mark Henry: He is a Strong Man Competator. Meaning flipping an Ambulance or a Semi-Truck is well within his capabilities. As a reminder, the truck is twice as heavy as the Ambulance he clipped last year.

To those who keep questioning this, last week’s backstage takedown involving Brock Lesnar and Ken and the Ambulance: Yes it was 100% Strowman. Look him up under his real name, Adam Scherr. He’s capable of ALOT more than what we’ve seen and it’s exactly why even against Lesnar he can’t go full power. It’s for their own safety.

Again, Kudos to Vince for consenting to the The Monster Among Men showing the world why he has that nickname. Displays of power like that by him are always good. There is never a time when it will ever be bad. More so now that WWE seems to have finally have embraced the idea of having two or more top superstars at the same time. It helps they have alot of options in the rare event both Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman are unavailable for some reason (Time off or Injury).

That said, WWE is dropping strong hints Strowman will get the honor of being the first WWE Superstar to cleanly pin Lesnar for the top title at Wrestlemania since he returned to WWE in 2012. As a reminder, Lesnar lost the title at Wrestlemania 31 BUT he wasn’t involved in the decision. Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in The Bank briefcase during the match involving Lesnar and Roman Reigns to make it a Triple Threat match, then he pinned Roman Reigns to win the title.

How I see this being set up is Kane wins the title at the Royal Rumble by pinning Lesnar but drops it to Lesnar in the February PPV via Rematch Clause. Then Strowman vs. Lesnar is set for Wrestlemania. That makes the most sense plus you allow Kane to have one more title run while putting Over Strowman as he has been. WWE kept the top title away from Strowman on purpose so they could slowly develop his character. Now it’s time for him to taste some gold!